regardless of what happens in this immediate negotiation to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and the reason is this. for a longtime, martha, we were able to increase entitlement benefits, keep taxes relatively low, because the economy, over time, grew fast enough to produce enough revenue to mean that we could kind of have it both ways. those day, at least for now, appear to be over. and we are increasingly borrowing to cover our governmental expenses and our entitlement state and all the rest of it. and it's an unsustainable debt burden. how hard it hits us is a matter of some debate or how soon. at this point we will not be able to go on like this. this sort of model if you could call it that is broken and it's going to mean there is a long struggle here to finance the government and get control of the debt, and i don't see it ending any time soon regardless of what happens here. martha: a lot of people talk about leadership and what they see as a lack of leadership on the president's part in this issue. i spoke a little while ago with senator lindsey graham and he said that the pr